Saturday, August 29, 2009

State Fair

The lovely wife and I made the annual pilgrimage to the State Fair today.

Foods consumed:
  • French fries
  • One (1) corn dog, by me
  • Potato skins
  • Ice cream
Foods not consumed:
  • Cheese curds (shocking, I know)
  • Giant pickle on a stick
  • Deep-fried candy bar
  • Pretzel from a stand with a cop car in front
  • .... over 300 other possibilities, including 78 on a stick.

There were a lot of people at the fair, including a dude on a cell phone near a no parking sign.

One of these massive blue ribbons is Erin's. Sadly none of the bottles were labeled, so we don't know which one was Erin's (or really whether hers was there at all, because there were 20 categories and only 10 blue ribbons), but just look at the size of that thing!

The literature table in the Eco Experience building had Cyclopath postcards. Sweet!

Do not drive your car into this building, especially before 9am or after 9pm.

If you're nominated for Princess Kay of the Milky Way (yes, there's a Wikipedia page), you get a creepy likeness of yourself carved in a giant block of butter - which you then have to get to take home.

The biggest hog is quite large (~1,300 lbs), and generally very sleepy.

And the piglets are very cute. They also dislike being held upside down while having a rectal temperature taken and having an ear chewed on by another piglet (not pictured).

Weekend To-Do List

  • prepare Grand Canyon permit application
  • draft letter to Pentax executives
  • list 18-125 for sale
  • buy an electric griddle, other stuff at Target
  • clean out e-mail
  • clean out Google Reader
  • secret item 1 2 3
  • go to State Fair
  • tune up bike
  • mow lawn
  • Call A&I and figure out how I'm going to get my film developed
  • call the dumbasses at the student health insurance place
  • vacuum, mop, sweep
  • move microwave
  • organize wedding photos a bit
  • organize trip photos
  • do laundry
  • Back up blog?
  • Back up other cloud stuff?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

First Roll of Film

Got the first roll of film back a couple of days ago.

Can't say I'm happy - these scans are awful, and I paid big bucks for them ($23 for develop & scan). Local camera shop fail. Next time (shortly - only a couple of frames left on the next roll), I'm going mail-order.

That said, I had fun, I'm glad I got my father-in-law's Spotmatic services, I continue to shoot film, and here are a few images.

New science classroom building on campus.

Washington Ave bridge, in the rain.

Some piece of equipment in the hallway at work. I was surprised that this came out interesting - it's one of my favorites on the roll, but I thought immediately afterward that it was a waste of film.

The stripe across the middle is on the negative. I don't know if it was bad developing, or some error in the camera.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Eve of Destruction

Saturday night, some friends and I went to Eve of Destruction at Elko Speedway.

Eve of Destruction is several hours of motorized ridiculousness.

For example, guys who do backflips on motorcycles. I'm not sure how one practices this stuff without getting killed.


Also, "Figure 8" racing, which is exactly what it sounds like. It may be shocking, but these two guys did not crash into each other.


Also, spectator events, when you can bring your own car in off the street and race it.


2nd to last was the "Dukes of Hazzard" jump, where you can bring your own car and drive it off a jump. Winner is whoever jumps the farthest.


But what's better than jumping a 1970's wood panel station wagon, a Suburban, and a minivan? How about a SCHOOL BUS!??!?!?!


Last but not least is School Bus Racing, which again is exactly what it sounds like. It's much slower than the regular car racing and absolutely hilarious, especially when they go figure-8.


Sadly, this time the school bus racing didn't last too long because a guy tipped over and apparently there wasn't time to right him and continue. I wonder if their permit to operate only goes to 11:00.

Goodbye, Sad Bicycle

I found this old bent-up bicycle in the alley a couple of years ago, intending to rescue the Sturmey-Archer AW 3-speed hub and put it to good use. Instead, it sat in the yard.

But I finally managed to give it away, and not only did someone use the hub but he was able to salvage the frame, and now his wife rides it. :)

Bread, with Eyes and Mold

This bread was brought to a GroupLens potluck several months ago and not finished... it made its way through a few desks until it went into Katie Panciera's, where it remained until she found it on July 16.

It was a little stinky and I didn't have an immediate use for it, so I threw it out.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Weekend To-Do List

  • Fill out health insurance enrollment forms
  • Tie up sunflowers
  • Secret item 1 2 3
  • Vacuum, mop, sweep
  • Tinker with B&W conversion of dock picture
  • Move microwave
  • Tune up bike
  • Organize wedding photos a bit
  • Organize trip photos
  • Blog a few pics from the digital
  • Clean up e-mail
  • Mow lawn
  • Shop for mattress
  • Go to Eve of Destruction
  • Have BBQCOPTER
  • Return overdue library books
  • Back up blog?
  • Back up other cloud stuff?

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Weekend To-Do List

  • Secret item 1 2 3
  • Organize secret gatherings 1 2
  • Vacuum, mop, sweep
  • Tinker with B&W conversion of dock picture
  • E-mail Pentax about lens/camera
  • Move microwave
  • Tune up bike
  • Trim/move avocado
  • Organize wedding photos a bit
  • Organize trip photos
  • Blog a few pics from the digital
  • Do laundry (Erin did it)
  • Mow lawn
  • Go to grocery
  • Back up blog?
  • Back up other cloud stuff?
  • Clean out e-mail
  • Finalize Erin's back-up scheme
  • Clean out Google Reader
  • Go furniture shopping
  • Re-pot poinsettia (Erin did it)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

How Not to Write Bug Reporting Guidelines

These directions are from the Debian Samba package (which provides Windows-style file- and printer-sharing).

This kind of attitude is sadly common among free software, and it's extremely counterproductive if your goal is actually finding bugs and improving the software. The 3rd paragraph is where it gets really rich (note that it is trivial to change the bug's severity after submission).
2. Reporting Bugs
-----------------

If you believe you have found a bug please make sure the possible bug also exists in the latest version of Samba that is available for the unstable Debian distribution. If you are running Debian stable this means that you will probably have to build your own packages. And if the problem does not exist in the latest version of Samba we have packaged it means that you will have to run the version of Samba you built yourself since it is not easy to upload new packages to the stable distribution, unless they fix critical security problems.

If you can reproduce the problem in the latest version of Samba then it is likely to be a real bug. Your best shot is to search the Samba mailing lists to see if it is something that has already been reported and fixed - if it is a simple fix we can add the patch to our packages without waiting for a new Samba release.

If you decide that your problem deserves to be submitted to the Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS) we expect you to be responsive if we request more information. If we request more information and do not receive any in a reasonable time frame expect to see your bug closed without explanation - we can't fix bugs we can't reproduce, and most of the time we need more information to be able to reproduce them.

When submitting a bug to the Debian BTS please include the version of the Debian package you are using as well as the Debian distribution you are using. Think _twice_ about the severity you assign to the bug: we are _very_ sensitive about bug severities; the fact that it doesn't work for you doesn't mean that the severity must be such that it holds a major Debian release. In fact, that it doesn't work for you it doesn't mean that it doesn't work for others. So again: think _twice_.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Reid's True Birthplace Revealed!!

Flash! Turns out that I was not born in New Mexico as you may have heard, but rather in Mombasa District, Kenya, just like Barack Obama!! Not only that, I'm actually Barack's younger brother! Wow! I didn't know I was half black!

Here's the proof:


Go to http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com straight away to discover where you were really born!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Weekend To-Do List

  • Call mom, dad, Granny
  • Clean out garage
  • Vacuum, mop, sweep
  • Tinker with B&W conversion of dock picture
  • E-mail Pentax about lens/camera
  • Move microwave
  • Tune up bike
  • Trim bushes
  • Trim/move avocado
  • Do some dishes (Erin did them...)
  • Organize wedding photos a bit
  • Organize trip photos
  • Buy beer
  • Do laundry
  • Shoot some pictures with the Spotmatic
  • Blog a few pics from the digital
  • Pay bills
  • Clean out e-mail from mailing lists